American Life in Poetry: Column 443

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

There are thousands of poems about caring for the old, but I have never before seen one like this, in which a caregiver wades with an elderly person out into deep water, literally and figuratively. It’s by Marie Thurmer, a poet now living in Nebraska.

A Grandfather

We waded in the shallows,holding his hands, then justfingertips, as his feetslowly lifted off the bottom.The land did not stopat the waterline, but simplybecame unreachable.His worn face bobbed abovethe waves, breath in an Oas our words, fistfulsof shimmering minnows,scattered, lost on their wayto him. The tide carriedhim out, then back a bit,a gradual letting go into darkwaters, and we, stillin the ebb, could almostmistake that Ofor the response we wanted—on the ins, I’ll remember you,on the outs, goodbye.